Up on the workbench! Quick! Quick! Quick!

Day three of the Last Minute Elf, and we have a stunner of a project for you from our friend Mike Boulant.

I’ll let Mike tell you a little bit about these honeys:

These photos are 2 dartboard cabinets I made for my brother and brother-in-law this year. These were two of the most complex projects I have attempted, but there wasn’t a ton of material and it only took 1 day to get all the components milled and cut to final size, including the joinery. So the time criteria should count as a last minute elf project.

What took the remainder of the time (approximately 2 weeks) was the finishing process. I used Arm R Seal for the first time. The dry time between coats is MUCH longer than I am used to with spray lacquer. I pre-finished all of the door panels and interior parts because I was worried of messing up the cork on the back and I figured I would get better results that way. I ended up doing about 4 coats of gloss and 2 coats of satin for the final top coats. I sanded between each coat with 360 grit and 600 for the final coat.

I used 4/4 Cherry for the case and veneered the 1/4″ MDF door panels with walnut. My inspiration for the project came from two sources. Initially, I watched Brian Grella’s video series on his cabinets. I took the inspiration for the cloud lifts on the doors from him. But I love the chunky box joints for the case construction that Marc Spagnuolo has used on some of his pieces. I’m proud of how these turned out and hopefully they will be enjoyed for years to come.

Wow, Mike, I’m gonna tell you those are some impressive gifts. And, since you said that finishing was one of the problems you experienced with the piece, well, do you have an awesome piece of tooling coming your way!

How about an Earlex Spray Station HV2901, which will allow you to get into the wonderful world of spray finishes – and the efficiency of an HVLP system. Use it in good health, and we look forward to the other projects you have up your sleeve in the future!